ASUS ROG Winter 2014

The year 2013 has been a great year for StarCraft II. Since the launch of StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm we have seen over 30 premier tournaments and numerous amount of other competitions being played in the global and local scale. To keep the pace up, ASUS ROG kicks off the year 2014 with another premier StarCraft II tournament in the Nordic, ASUS ROG Winter 2014!

ASUS ROG StarCraft II tournaments return to Helsinki on January 31 with a two day event presenting a roster of 32 players and a $25 000 USD prize pool. The tournament is also part of the StarCraft II World Championship Series as a WCS Global Event, with 4000 WCS points to distribute. Naturally, a free HD stream is provided with professional English commentary. On-site audience can enjoy the action live in the ASUS ROG arena.

Format

The tournament format is the same that has been used in the ASUS ROG Summer tournaments. The players go through two WCS style group stages and the top eight advances to the single elimination playoffs. All the matches are best-of-five except for the final which is a best-of-seven match. Since the tournament is a two day event, as opposed to the three days in the summer, both of the group stages are played on the first day of the tournament while the second day is reserved for the playoffs.

Participation

There are two ways to gain one of the 32 spots in the tournament, by a direct invite or by an online qualification tournament. In order to receive an invite, players must first request an invite by filling out an application form. Everyone is encouraged to request an invite first, and participate in the qualifiers second if need be.

Online qualifiers

There is two online qualifiers which each give out four spots for the main tournament. Please note that the qualifier tournaments will only grant the right to participate to the main tournament. Travel and accommodation expenses are not covered.